Well, he was a candidate in 2005. But I'd say that his career in politics was something he was less famous for than his medical achievents. He was the guy who conducted the first heart transplant in Poland and he built his own cardiac surgery clinic. And as I said, he was awarded with both Order of the White Eagle and two Orders of Polonia Restituta, which really is something.

1. The biggest news piece these days is Euro 2016 qualifiier and Polish team's unusually good performance. In the weekend game, our team managed to beat the Germans (the current world champions) - and yesterday, we got a draw against Scotland. So, everyone here is cheering and asking what's going on. Our guys are suddenly a strong team, or something?

(BTW. In the news I watched today, they were a few female football fans shown. Once again, it turns out that our feminists are completely mistaken in their claim that football is only a sport that interests men and that building stadiums or showing football on TV is a discrimination against women...)

2. An avalanche in Himalayas kills 12 tourists...

3. The rescue action in the coal mine (where there was an explosion over a week ago) continues.

4. The ongoing synode of Catholic bishops, where some heated discussion (about homosexuals and divorcees, among other subjects) seems to be taking place.

(BTW. In the news I watched today, they were a few female football fans shown. Once again, it turns out that our feminists are completely mistaken in their claim that football is only a sport that interests men and that building stadiums or showing football on TV is a discrimination against women...)

Seriously - athletic guys in shorts. It's only when the stadiums are built at the expense of other infrastructure that it's a problem, and then it's more of a question about why a means of entertainment takes precedence.

3. The rescue action in the coal mine (where there was an explosion over a week ago) continues.

My heart really goes out to the miners and their families. After my great-grandfather moved to America from Poland around the beginning of the 20th century, he and his brother settled in coal country, and a dust explosion in the mine that they worked is regarded as one of the worst disasters in American mining history.

1. The biggest news piece these days is Euro 2016 qualifiier and Polish team's unusually good performance. In the weekend game, our team managed to beat the Germans (the current world champions) - and yesterday, we got a draw against Scotland. So, everyone here is cheering and asking what's going on. Our guys are suddenly a strong team, or something?

Poland have been a fairly strong team for a while; Lewandowski obviously gets the headlines but you've got three very solid goalkeeping options while the likes of Piszczek, Błaszczykowski and Glik are all strong players while Adam Matuszczyk is really promising. It's not a patch on the late-70's to early 80's side and no-one really considers them a footballing super power... but they're a solid team all the same. Beating Germany was of course a remarkable result (especially when you factor in that Poland had never beaten Germany before) but they were the favourites against Scotland even before beating Germany... a draw at home is actually a somewhat poor result for them.

On that note soccer/football has been in the news a lot over here, especially as all the national teams in Britain and Ireland are doing well; England may not be playing stunning football but we're three from three in our qualifying games, Northern Ireland are doing stunningly well having also won three from three to top their qualifying group, Wales are the top of their group with two wins and a draw, Ireland just managed a draw with Germany to follow up their expected thrashing of Gibraltar and grinding win against Georgia so they're second in their group... which also contains Scotland who, as mentioned, got a draw against Poland, a win against Georgea and a narrow loss against Germany. At the start of that group it was expected that Germany would run away with it leaving Poland, Scotland and Ireland to fight for the remaining automatic qualification and playoff spot... right now it looks like a straight four-way fight with Georgia playing the spoiler. You have to expect Germany to improve as players return from injury and the World Cup hangover disappears but even so they may not definitely win their group.

People complained a lot about the expanding qualifying for the Euros and how it would lead to a lot of mismatches and pointless games as the big teams sailed through. In reality anything but that's happened; Germany (the World Champions remember) have won one (a scrappy, narrow win over Scotland), lost one and drawn one, Spain have lost one of their matches and the Netherlands have only won one of three (and that was a pretty scrappy result). From a British and Irish perspective there's a real chance that all five teams make it to the Euro finals... and that's a pretty remarkable achievement.

Also on the sporting front, we're still going through the fallout of the rugby league Grand Final where this happened:

A little bit of fisticuffs is expected in both codes of rugby and the odd punch landing clean isn't exactly a shocking event. Standing over a person you've just knocked out with that punch and then landing another shot on the other hand is.

Seriously - athletic guys in shorts. It's only when the stadiums are built at the expense of other infrastructure that it's a problem, and then it's more of a question about why a means of entertainment takes precedence.

Some of our feminists seem to disagree :) I remember that when the country was building the infrastructure for the Euro 2012 tournament, there were voices from the feminist / leftist circles that spending money on such matters was wrong and an example of the government favouring men's interests. Heck, one of our leftist journalists, Roman Kurkiewicz (the same guy who said that he regretted that beauty contests were still taking place) accused the stadiums of being "phallic"...

Our feminists (at least some of them) really seem to believe that the only people interested in football are men - and all these female spectators in the stadiums are there only because their boyfriends / husbands dragged them along...

Poland have been a fairly strong team for a while; Lewandowski obviously gets the headlines but you've got three very solid goalkeeping options while the likes of Piszczek, Błaszczykowski and Glik are all strong players while Adam Matuszczyk is really promising. It's not a patch on the late-70's to early 80's side and no-one really considers them a footballing super power... but they're a solid team all the same.

True that. But you know... for years, our national football team kept losing everywhere it went. Every time our guys took place in some international event, there were a lot of hopes... and a mediocre result. And now, suddenly, our guys actually managed to beat the world champions! Rationally speaking, it wasn't that surprising, considering that we now have guys like Lewandowski, but still... it really is a big change for the better.

Personally, I'm happy to see that we're getting some successes in a sport as popular as football. I may be mistaken, but I think that Poland isn't a country associated with great sporting achievements, despite the fact that we actually have some fantastic sportspeople (Adam Małysz a few years ago, Justyna Kowalczyk, Agnieszka Radwańska, our national male volleyball team...). This may change with the rise of Lewandowski as a internationally-known player and, hopefully, some successes of the football team as a whole...

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Also on the sporting front, we're still going through the fallout of the rugby league Grand Final where this happened:

A little bit of fisticuffs is expected in both codes of rugby and the odd punch landing clean isn't exactly a shocking event. Standing over a person you've just knocked out with that punch and then landing another shot on the other hand is.

Oh wow. Nasty.

I wonder: could a thing like this result in criminal charges? Outside of the playfield, a situation like that might be considered an assault...

Every time our guys took place in some international event, there were a lot of hopes... and a mediocre result.

Are you sure you're not talking about England by mistake

Overly-optimistic hopes and bitter realities have been facts of life for English football fans for going on two decades now.

And now, suddenly, our guys actually managed to beat the world champions! Rationally speaking, it wasn't that surprising, considering that we now have guys like Lewandowski, but still... it really is a big change for the better.

Personally, I'm happy to see that we're getting some successes in a sport as popular as football. I may be mistaken, but I think that Poland isn't a country associated with great sporting achievements, despite the fact that we actually have some fantastic sportspeople (Adam Małysz a few years ago, Justyna Kowalczyk, Agnieszka Radwańska, our national male volleyball team...). This may change with the rise of Lewandowski as a internationally-known player and, hopefully, some successes of the football team as a whole...

I'm a pretty keen boxing fan and Poland's produced some pretty handy boxers in recent years so for me it's got that at least.

I think the issue with recognition outside Poland is that a lot of Poland's success has some in what I think would have to be considered minority sports; outside of a few areas winter sports apart from hockey are given little regard or attention and likewise with volleyball. Tennis has a wider impact but female tennis suffers from the fact Serena is so dominant, Sharapova gets most of the tabloid style press and even when another player does break through there's rarely any consistency. Sadly I also suspect Polish players suffer from a certain amount of... I'm trying to think of the right term and "generic Eastern-Europeanness" is probably the best I can do... when it comes to Western recognition; because we're not particularly familiar with naming conventions and differences if someone says "Agnieszka Radwańska" to me I'd guess she's either Eastern European or Russian... but which Eastern European country would be completely beyond me if I didn't know her.

Here's a sad statement which touches on that; when Germany were playing England at Wembely a depressing number of English fans were wondering why Robert Lewandowski wasn't playing for Germany. Yes, he may have made his name in the German League and played for the two biggest sides in Germany right now... but I suspect no-one made the mistake of wondering why Zlatan Ibrahimović (who made his name in Italy and played for Juventus, Inter and AC Milan) hadn't turned out for Italy or why fat Ronaldo (who played for both Barcelona and Real Madrid in Spain and Inter and AC Milan in Italy) was turning out for Spain and Italy.

I wonder: could a thing like this result in criminal charges? Outside of the playfield, a situation like that might be considered an assault...

They can but rarely do.

Technically contact sports includes a level of consent to physical violence which allows them to occur; it's why rugby players can crash into each other and why boxers can punch each other. But that consent is merely consenting to violence within the context of the rules; if you consent to playing rugby and thus having a 230lbs man crash into you at speed that doesn't mean you consent to him punching you. But in reality there's more leniency given then that; while throwing a punch outside a nightclub would likely get you arrested, throwing a punch on a rugby field very rarely does.

Some of our feminists seem to disagree :) I remember that when the country was building the infrastructure for the Euro 2012 tournament, there were voices from the feminist / leftist circles that spending money on such matters was wrong and an example of the government favouring men's interests. Heck, one of our leftist journalists, Roman Kurkiewicz (the same guy who said that he regretted that beauty contests were still taking place) accused the stadiums of being "phallic"...

Football stadiums. Large, oval-shaped structures that people go inside, with the most important part being at the center.

Apparently Obama is enlisting the help of Sweden to fight the Ebola outbreak in western Africa - papers here are pushing that the POTUS was in a fairly long phone conversation with fresh Swedish PM Stefan Löfvén about funding and coordinating anti-Ebola efforts in Africa. As to money per capita, we're the biggest aid donor nation when it comes to this fearsome disease. *beams*

One thing that's hitting the national news here is the administration and CDC's refusal to put the affected African countries under a travel ban. They are saying that putting them under a travel ban would hasten the spread and increase the chances of Ebola coming to the US.

One thing that's hitting the national news here is the administration and CDC's refusal to put the affected African countries under a travel ban. They are saying that putting them under a travel ban would hasten the spread and increase the chances of Ebola coming to the US.

Time has an article that explains some of the concerns that speak against a travel ban. Short version: (1) A travel ban makes it harder to get help to the affected countries, thereby increasing the chances that Ebola will spread to countries not yet affected, and (2) there are no direct flight between the affected countries and the US anyway and with travellers having to switch planes or having a stop-over in Europe, the whole travel ban idea falls apart because the US doesn't have any control to begin with.

What makes the news here in Germany seem to be the "usual suspects": ISIS, Ebola, and these days the bishops' conference in the Vatican about traditional family values, marriage, and homsexuality.

Other topics that have been in the news lately largely concern military matters, namely:

- The sorry state of our militray hardware. Our air force has only a rather sorry percentage of its aircraft and helicopters combat-ready that I am inclined to call it an Ari farce instead of an air force.

- Related to that is the matter of huge cost overruns in the procurement of pretty much any big piece of military hardware. I guess that happens almost everywehere, but it has been a topic in the news here recently.

- And then there ist the question of what military hardware Germany should, or should not, export, and to whom. The debate started when our government decided to supply weapons to the Kurdish Peshmerga fighting Isis in Iraq, but it has taken on a larger and more general dimension now.

Time has an article that explains some of the concerns that speak against a travel ban. Short version: (1) A travel ban makes it harder to get help to the affected countries, thereby increasing the chances that Ebola will spread to countries not yet affected, and (2) there are no direct flight between the affected countries and the US anyway and with travellers having to switch planes or having a stop-over in Europe, the whole travel ban idea falls apart because the US doesn't have any control to begin with.

/sigh I wish the administration would get off that excuse. It's stupid. They would have chartered flights in. Chartered by the government to specifically bring in aid and workers. The ban I and others are talking about is regular commercial flights. Not chartered relief flights. There is a difference.

note; I'm not calling you stupid Cassandra, but the Administration's insistence on using this line of reasoning. They act like a travel ban would affect all flights, even ones the government could specifically exempt to fly in with supplies and workers/doctors.

The Swedish navy and some of the air force are hunting for a possible Russian submarine or mini-sub in the archipelago off Stockholm, and according to rumours in the newspapers perhaps a seriously damaged one already before the chase began. This sort of thing (except the damage) happened several times during the late years of the cold war, but this is the first time in like twenty-five years that there's been a hunt with this kind of number of units, men and focus looking for an intruding submarine in the coastal waters around here. Of course this is really serious given the tension between Russia, Nato and all kinds of countries in eastern Europe around the Ukraine crisis, and a long historical rivalry between Russia and Sweden (Sweden is unaligned but fairly close to Nato). If they get anything up above the surface (it's really hard to force up a small submarine in peacetime conditions) it's sure to be a near-sensation and a real headache for both the cabinet here, the MoD and the Kremlin.

/sigh I wish the administration would get off that excuse. It's stupid. They would have chartered flights in. Chartered by the government to specifically bring in aid and workers. The ban I and others are talking about is regular commercial flights. Not chartered relief flights. There is a difference.

note; I'm not calling you stupid Cassandra, but the Administration's insistence on using this line of reasoning. They act like a travel ban would affect all flights, even ones the government could specifically exempt to fly in with supplies and workers/doctors.

I think you've misunderstood Cassandra there. That didn't seem to be any part of their reasoning, or isn't from what she wrote at least. She reported two points - one that a ban would damage charities and aid workers getting to the affected area, two that a ban was pointless because there are literally no commercial flights to ban. Nothing to do with charter flights.

/sigh I wish the administration would get off that excuse. It's stupid. They would have chartered flights in. Chartered by the government to specifically bring in aid and workers. The ban I and others are talking about is regular commercial flights. Not chartered relief flights. There is a difference.

note; I'm not calling you stupid Cassandra, but the Administration's insistence on using this line of reasoning. They act like a travel ban would affect all flights, even ones the government could specifically exempt to fly in with supplies and workers/doctors.

Oh, I didn't read it as you calling me stupid. No worries. :)

But while I see your point that the government can make whatever exceptions to rules it puts into place I would again like to put forward two points:

1 ) It is easier to put a rule in place than make exceptions to it. I think everyone here might have, at one point or another, struggled with bureaucracies and how they deal with things. Once there is a "no travel" rule in place (which is easy and swift to implement) you would need to define exceptions, define who makes the decisions when or for whom exceptions should be granted, and so on. Even setting up those rules would take valuable time, not to mention the process of obtaining travel authorization.

2 ) Aside from the practical restrictions or problems there is also the political aspect. If the government states categorically that no one should travel to or from the affected countries it becomes harder to justify sending helpers there. If you declare on one hand that it is just too dangerous to travel there, how can you, on the other hand, justify sending people there to help, justify putting them in harms way? To me it seems the short answer is: You can't, at least not in the times we live in, dominated by headlines and short newsbites.